There are good reasons to hire consultants. You can pull them in to add their objectivity, specialized expertise or the additional capacity you need to meet a deadline. But some of the reasons that consultants are hired are just wrong. Here are six:

To offload the dirty work. Some executives want to bring in a hired gun when they're uncomfortable with the task at hand. One common version of this is hiring a layoff specialist to terminate staff. But good executives — good leaders — aren't afraid to get their hands dirty.

If a staff reduction were imminent, they wouldn't shirk their duty to explain the situation, and they would lead the layoffs personally. That doesn't mean there aren't good reasons for hiring HR consultants. They can help coach the layoff team and ensure that labor law is followed. But the executive himself needs to do the dirty work.